You may be planning a natural birth, but there are times when your health-care provider must intervene for health and safety reasons. Or you may find that standard hospital practices often include medical interventions. In either situation, it’s important that you be involved in the decisions related to your care. You can do that by asking questions and openly com-municating your desires to everyone in attendance. When a medical intervention is suggested or presented as routine pro-cedure, ask about the benefits, risks, alternatives and whether you can do the procedure later – or not at all. Most important, trust your intuition. Everyone, including you, should stop and think before an intervention is suggested. Research shows that many times interventions are done more for convenience sake than for medical reasons. Being well-informed about the common interventions that might arise will enhance your ability to make crucial decisions. Educate yourself, communicate your preferences well in advance and stay involved in all decisions related to labor and birth. Your choices will be critical to the health and safety of you and your baby.

It’s a day you’ll mark with cake and candles in the coming years—the day that you finally get to meet your new baby! You’ve waited many months for this moment, and spent considerable time thinking about how it will unfold.